Today was our first full day with our host families. First, we drove from Bad Homburg to Oberursel to enjoy brunch with other exchange students. It was interesting to see what was prepared, with many cheeses, cold-cut meats, pretzels, and fruit all included, even Weißwurst. Everything was very good and I enjoyed talking with everyone about many different things. Then, we left to Bad Homburg to go geocaching; however, we missed the bus and needed to go on the train. It was a little complicated and difficult to understand in German, although we managed to get through a good part of it before we got completely stuck and ended our geocaching excursion. Despite it being difficult to understand, it was fun to do and also a good opportunity to walk through the Kurpark and see the art installations. I learned about how Bad Homburg is famous as a spa town and its connection to Kaiser Wilhelm II. I was also surprised to found out that Bad Homburg is home to the Germany’s oldest golf club and a Russian chapel. We then went to an ice cream shop where I ordered Spaghettieis, a typical German ice cream dish where the vanilla ice cream is shaped to look like spaghetti noodles with red strawberry sauce on top so that the whole dish looks like a plate of spaghetti. Afterwards we visited a castle in Bad Homburg,and it was interesting to notice that our exchange students found it completely normal to just have a castle nearby, while we thought it was cool to see, as we simply do not have historic buildings truly like that in America. After going out for dinner, we came back and played Kniffel, a game with dice that was almost the same as Yahtzee. In all, it was a very fun day which has me looking forward to the rest of the trip. ~Koa K.
After getting a long night’s sleep (about 10 hours!), I woke up on Thursday around 9. I was happy to discover that the shower worked the same as it had in the hotel, and that saved me a bit of time and strife. Then it was off to breakfast at around 10. We ate a traditional (and also very large) German breakfast at Kyle’s exchange student’s house – I was very surprised to see that they eat Nutella even at breakfast. Then, we went geocaching in Bad Homburg with Kyle, Koa, Will, and their exchange partners. The city was adorable and very walkable, and it was nice to get there so easily with short bus and train rides. After seeing a few monuments in Bad Homburg and walking through the gorgeous Kurpark, we were unable to find one of the geocaching spots, so we decided to go back into the middle of the city and get some ice cream. While the others ate German Spaghettieis, I settled for a hot chocolate because I am still getting used to the colder weather here. Then, Olivia and I went back to the house with our exchange partner because she had a horseback riding lesson. Olivia and I stayed home, where we watched some Netflix and spent a very long time petting the neighbor’s cat, Leo. We also tried a little bit of German candy – I really liked the Katjes Grün-Ohr Hase. When my exchange student was finished with her riding lesson, we ate some dinner and went out together with her mother and brother to play pool. Olivia and I played against my exchange student and her mother, and, although we spent a solid hour and a half playing, I somehow did not get any better. When we were finished – around 10:30 – it hadn’t been dark outside for long. That was very surprising, even if I’m used to it staying light outside in summer. When we got home, I was very tired and went quickly to bed, ready for another night of good rest before our visit to the Hessenpark. ~Claire F.